TY - CONF A1 - Gaal, Mate A1 - Kotschate, Daniel T1 - New technologies for air-coupled ultrasonic transducers N2 - Air-coupled ultrasonic testing (ACUT) has experienced rapid growth within the last years. It is especially well suited to inspection of lightweight structures consisting of composite materials and adhesive joints. Uniform coupling and easy maintenance are its advantages compared to contact technique. However, the impedance mismatch between the transducer and air poses a major challenge to the development of ACUT transducers. Commercially available air-coupled transducers consist of a piezocomposite material and matching layers. Their fabrication is difficult in handling and their signal-to-noise ratio sometimes not sufficient for various testing requirements. However, there are several innovative approaches using other materials and other physical principles to transmit and receive an ultrasonic pulse. We present a review of the latest advances in research on air-coupled transducers for non-destructive testing, including previously unpublished results. We recognize two major directions as most promising: ferroelectrets and thermoacoustic transducers. Ferroelectrets are charged cellular polymers exhibiting piezoelectric properties. Their small acoustic impedance is matched to air better than matching layers applied in conventional air-coupled transducers. Applying bias voltage to a ferroelectret receiver is the latest development in this field, which increased the received signal by 12 to 15 dB. Thermoacoustic transducers use heat to initiate an ultrasonic wave, acting as transmitters. The working principle is known from nature as thunder and lightning: thermal energy of an electrically heated material, which can also be air, is converted into acoustic energy. Some thermoacoustic transmitters consist of a conductive layer with a thickness in the nanometer range deposited on a solid substrate. Another possibility is to use an electric spark. For the first time, measurements of the sound field of an electric spark up to 500 kHz were performed. Thermoacoustic transducers enable excitation of extremely broadband pulses while producing high pressure levels, which opens new possibilities for advanced signal processing. T2 - 12th European conference on Non-Destructive Testing CY - Gothenburg, Sweden DA - 11.06.2018 KW - Transducer KW - Air-coupled ultrasonic testing KW - Atmospheric pressure plasma KW - Cellular polypropylene KW - Ferroelectret PY - 2018 AN - OPUS4-45304 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Gaal, Mate A1 - Kotschate, Daniel T1 - New technologies for air-coupled ultrasonic transducers N2 - Air-coupled ultrasonic testing (ACUT) has experienced rapid growth within the last years. It is especially well suited to inspection of lightweight structures consisting of composite materials and adhesive joints. Uniform coupling and easy maintenance are its advantages compared to contact technique. However, the impedance mismatch between the transducer and air poses a major challenge to the development of ACUT transducers. Commercially available air-coupled transducers consist of a piezocomposite material and matching layers. Their fabrication is difficult in handling and their signal-to-noise ratio sometimes not sufficient for various testing requirements. However, there are several innovative approaches using other materials and other physical principles to transmit and receive an ultrasonic pulse. We present a review of the latest advances in research on air-coupled transducers for non-destructive testing, including previously unpublished results. We recognize two major directions as most promising: ferroelectrets and thermoacoustic transducers. Ferroelectrets are charged cellular polymers exhibiting piezoelectric properties. Their small acoustic impedance is matched to air better than matching layers applied in conventional air-coupled transducers. Applying bias voltage to a ferroelectret receiver is the latest development in this field, which increased the received signal by 12 to 15 dB. Thermoacoustic transducers use heat to initiate an ultrasonic wave, acting as transmitters. The working principle is known from nature as thunder and lightning: thermal energy of an electrically heated material, which can also be air, is converted into acoustic energy. Some thermoacoustic transmitters consist of a conductive layer with a thickness in the nanometer range deposited on a solid substrate. Another possibility is to use an electric spark. For the first time, measurements of the sound field of an electric spark up to 500 kHz were performed. Thermoacoustic transducers enable excitation of extremely broadband pulses while producing high pressure levels, which opens new possibilities for advanced signal processing. T2 - 12th European conference on Non-Destructive Testing CY - Gothenburg, Sweden DA - 11.06.2018 KW - Air-coupled ultrasonic testing KW - Atmospheric pressure plasma KW - Cellular polypropylene KW - Ferroelectret KW - Transducer PY - 2018 SP - ECNDT-0608-2018, 1 EP - 9 AN - OPUS4-45209 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Grager, J.-C. A1 - Kotschate, Daniel A1 - Gamper, J. A1 - Gaal, Mate A1 - Pinkert, K. A1 - Mooshofer, H. A1 - Goldammer, M. A1 - Grosse, C. U. T1 - Advances in air-coupled ultrasonic testing combining an optical microphone with novel transmitter concepts N2 - Air-coupled ultrasound (ACU) is increasingly used for automated and contactless inspection of large-scale composite structures as well as for non-destructive testing (NDT) of water-sensitive or porous materials. The major challenge to overcome using ACU in NDT is the enormous loss of ultrasonic energy at each solid-air interface caused by the high acoustic impedance mismatch. Resonant low-frequency piezoceramic transducers are specially designed to achieve high sound pressure levels. For an expanded use of this technique, however, the spatial resolution needs to be increased. Recent studies of our collaborative research group demonstrated the successful application of a resonance-free, highly sensitive receiver that uses a Fabry-Pérot etalon instead of piezoceramic materials or membranes. However, to reach the full potential of this broadband small-aperture optical microphone, novel transmitter concepts have to be developed and evaluated for advanced NDT applications. Different types of transmitter were tested in combination with the optical microphone acting as receiver and they were compared to conventional piezoceramic transducers in through-transmission mode. Monolithic carbon fiber-reinforced plastics (CFRP) and CFRP sandwich structures containing different defect types were inspected. Presented results are processed as C-scan images and further evaluated for spatial resolution, signal-to-noise ratio and sensitivity of each measurement setup. Novel transmitter concepts, such as ferroelectret and thermoacoustic emitters, show promising findings with a considerably improved time and spatial resolution for ACU-NDT. T2 - 12th European conference on Non-Destructive Testing CY - Gothenburg, Sweden DA - 11.06.2018 KW - Air-coupled ultrasonic testing KW - Optical microphone KW - Thermoacoustic KW - Cellular polypropylene KW - Ferroelectret KW - Transducer PY - 2018 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-452114 SP - ECNDT-0166-2018, 1 EP - 10 AN - OPUS4-45211 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Strangfeld, Christoph T1 - Moisture testing and mapping N2 - Non-destructive testing of moisture in building materials T2 - NDT&E Advanced Training Workshop CY - Berlin, Germany DA - 27.06.2018 KW - Building materials KW - Concrete KW - Moisture measurement PY - 2018 AN - OPUS4-45348 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst T1 - Buildings: Seismology and Strctural Health Monitoring N2 - Overview of seismological concepts unsed in nondestructive testing in civil engineering T2 - Fourth TIDES Advanced Training School CY - Prague, Czech Repubilc DA - 01.07.2018 KW - Geophysics KW - Seismology KW - Interferometry KW - Structural health monitoring KW - Nondestructive testing PY - 2018 AN - OPUS4-45361 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schumacher, David A1 - Sharma, R. A1 - Grager, J.-C. A1 - Schrapp, M. T1 - Scatter and beam hardening reduction in industrial computed tomography using photon counting detectors N2 - Photon counting detectors (PCD) offer new possibilities for x-ray micro computed tomography (CT) in the field of non-destructive testing. For large and/or dense objects with high atomic numbers the problem of scattered radiation and beam hardening severely influences the image quality. This work shows that using an energy discriminating PCD based on CdTe allows to address these problems by intrinsically reducing both the influence of scattering and beam hardening. Based on 2D-radiographic measurements it is shown that by energy thresholding the influence of scattered radiation can be reduced by up to in case of a PCD compared to a conventional energy-integrating detector (EID). To demonstrate the capabilities of a PCD in reducing beam hardening, cupping artefacts are analyzed quantitatively. The PCD results show that the higher the energy threshold is set, the lower the cupping effect emerges. But since numerous beam hardening correction algorithms exist, the results of the PCD are compared to EID results corrected by common techniques. Nevertheless, the highest energy thresholds yield lower cupping artefacts than any of the applied correction algorithms. As an example of a potential industrial CT application, a turbine blade is investigated by CT. The inner structure of the turbine blade allows for comparing the image quality between PCD and EID in terms of absolute contrast, as well as normalized signal-to-noise and contrast-to-noise ratio. Where the absolute contrast can be improved by raising the energy thresholds of the PCD, it is found that due to lower statistics the normalized contrast-to-noise-ratio could not be improved compared to the EID. These results might change to the contrary when discarding pre-filtering of the x-ray spectra and thus allowing more low-energy photons to reach the detectors. Despite still being in the early phase in technological progress, PCDs already allow to improve CT image quality compared to conventional detectors in terms of scatter and beam hardening reduction. KW - X-ray computed tomography KW - Photon counting detector KW - CdTe sensor KW - Non-destructive testing KW - Beam hardening KW - Scattered radiation PY - 2018 UR - http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6501/aabef7/meta DO - https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6501/aabef7 SN - 1361-6501 VL - 29 IS - 7 SP - 075101, 1 EP - 12 PB - IOP Publishing CY - Bristol, UK AN - OPUS4-44959 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Joschko, M. A1 - Willms, M. A1 - Barkusky, D. A1 - Franko, U. A1 - Beblek, A. A1 - Fritsch, G. A1 - Illerhaus, Bernhard T1 - Relationship between soil structure and carbon dynamics in agricultural soils : potential for a farmer`s tool ? N2 - Soil structure, the spatial arrangement of soil elements, integrates a variety of drivers in agricultural soil (parent material, tillage, crop rotation, organic fertilizer, below ground biodiversity). It is related to almost all soil functions. Relationships between soil structure and the carbon sequestration potential of soil are known from the comparison of different land use systems (grassland vs. tilled soils ) and are expected to be a general phenomenon. Therefore , we expect soil structure assessed by modern non - destructive methods to be a valuable tool for the optimization of soil organic matter management in agricultural soils T2 - Soil organic matter management in agriculture – International Symposium CY - Brunswick, Germany DA - 29.05.2018 KW - Computed tomography KW - Carbon dynamics KW - Soil PY - 2018 AN - OPUS4-45068 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Örnek, C. A1 - Léonard, Fabien A1 - McDonald, S. A1 - Prajapati, A A1 - Withers, P. J. A1 - Engelberg, D. T1 - Time-dependent in situ measurement of atmospheric corrosion rates of duplex stainless steel wires N2 - Corrosion rates of strained grade UNS S32202 (2202) and UNS S32205 (2205) duplex stainless steel wires have been measured, in situ, using time-lapse X-ray computed tomography. Exposures to chloride-containing (MgCl2) atmospheric environments at 50 °C (12–15 M Cl− and pH ~5) with different mechanical elastic and elastic/plastic loads were carried out over a period of 21 months. The corrosion rates for grade 2202 increased over time, showing selective dissolution with shallow corrosion sites, coalescing along the surface of the wire. Corrosion rates of grade 2205 decreased over time, showing both selective and pitting corrosion with more localised attack, growing preferentially in depth. The nucleation of stress corrosion cracking was observed in both wires. KW - X-ray computed tomography KW - Time-lapse X-ray computed tomography PY - 2018 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-444153 UR - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41529-018-0030-9 DO - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41529-018-0030-9 SN - 2397-2106 VL - 2 SP - Article 10, 1 EP - 15 PB - Nature CY - London AN - OPUS4-44415 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Kotschate, Daniel A1 - Hansen, L. A1 - Gaal, Mate A1 - Kersten, H. T1 - Acoustical analysis of DCSBD and MHC discharges N2 - Due to the multi-physical appearance of gas discharges the possibilities of interaction with their surrounding environment are very wide. Some of the most common applications are the surface or material modification and acting as an ion source for mass spectroscopy applications. Since atmosphere plasma generates a massive amount of thermal energy caused by collisions in the sheath, this temperature alternation is also able to produce acoustic waves in the ambient gas volume (as lightning and thunder), which is called thermoacoustic effect. This talk presents an overview of the experimental acoustic analysis of surface dielectric barrier and micro hollow cathode discharges. Regarding other methods of acoustic excitation, the thermoacoustic approach benefits of its massless working principle and the proper impedance matching. In addition to the characterisation, possible applications (e.g. plasma acoustic loudspeaker or transducer for air-coupled ultrasonic testing) concerning these discharge types are presented. T2 - DPG Frühjahrstagung (SAMOP) CY - Erlangen, Germany DA - 04.03.2018 KW - Gas discharges KW - Micro hollow cathode discharge KW - Surface dielectric barrier discharge KW - Atmospheric pressure plasma PY - 2018 AN - OPUS4-44443 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Vössing, Konrad A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst ED - Faix, O. T1 - Nondestructive assessment and imaging methods for internal inspection of timber. A review. N2 - This paper reviews state-of-the-art in nondestructive testing (NDT) and semidestructive testing (SDT) methods applicable for imaging the condition of structural timber. Both NDT and SDT imaging reveal defects, damages, and decay, while the extent of wood decay can also be quantified. Combined with an appropriate data interpretation concerning the internal defects, the mechanical properties of the material can also be assessed. The possibilities and limitations of the most relevant individual NDT and SDT methods, also in combination with each other, are outlined and compared. To facilitate comparison, many observations are reported based on the same test specimen. KW - Drilling resistance KW - Electrical resistivity KW - Radar KW - Radiography KW - Sonic stress wave KW - Ultrasound KW - Non destructive testing KW - Timber structure PY - 2018 DO - https://doi.org/10.1515/hf-2017-0122 SN - 0018-3830 SN - 1437-434X VL - 72 IS - 6 SP - 467 EP - 476 PB - De Gruyter CY - Berlin AN - OPUS4-44445 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -